According to an update announced this morning to ISS ESG screening tool Governance QualityScore, outcomes will now include scoring on 17 newly introduced factors as part of the calculation for overall portfolio company governance in investor reports. This is the largest update to ISS’s methodology used to assess corporate governance caliber in recent years. The…
Category: proxy advisory firms
Agenda – Glass Lewis Raises the Bar on Board Diversity, Environmental Oversight
Glass Lewis announced yesterday that it would issue adverse voting recommendations for nominating and governance committee chairs in 2022 if there is a lack of gender diversity on the board, or it determines that the board has been weak in overseeing environmental and social issues. Agenda – Glass Lewis Raises the Bar on Board Diversity,…
Deutsche Boerse to buy 80% of ISS for $1.8 billion | Reuters
The German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse DB1Gn.DE said on Tuesday it would acquire an 80% stake in Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) for about $1.8 billion, the latest in a flurry of deals to sweep across the exchange industry. Deutsche Boerse to buy 80% of ISS for $1.8 billion | Reuters
The Chamber’s Appalling Amicus Brief on Proxy Advisors
The Chamber of Commerce, which has already deployed millions of dollars to get the SEC to restrict the sole source of independent research on proxy issues, has now filed an amicus brief in the ISS challenge to the rules. As expected, it is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. It is particularly…
Four Spots Biden Is Likely to Reverse SEC Deregulation
In a Biden administration, a reconstituted SEC led by a Democratic chair and consisting of a Democratic majority will most likely launch an active rulemaking agenda, roll back Trump-era regulations, and step up its enforcement and inspections programs. Here are the four places to look first as the SEC retires the Commission’s current deregulatory approach….
NAM Wants to Intervene in the ISS Challenge to the Proxy Advisory Rule
I couldn’t help laughing when I saw that the National Association of Manufacturers has filed a motion with the court to intervene in the ISS lawsuit challenging the SEC’s new rule on proxy advisory firms. What they are asking is to be considered one of the parties to the case, and thus be allowed to…
Are Boards Talking About ESG? Pearl Meyer
This is disappointing. The panel suggests they need to look at ESG to respond to proxy advisors and investors. They need to look at ESG for the same reason proxy advisors and investors do; to better assess investment risk and return.
ISS’s Lorraine Kelly Responds to SEC Rule on Proxy Advisors
Lorraine Kelly, head of governance business at ISS, writes in Barron’s about the SEC’s proxy advisory rule. An excerpt: Since last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been swept up in a well-funded corporate lobbying campaign pressing for enactment of onerous regulations that will make it more difficult for shareholders to voice disagreement with…
VEA Vice Chair Quoted: Divided SEC Passes Controversial Proxy Advisor Rule
Nell Minow, Vice Chair of ValueEdge Advisors and a co-founder and former president of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), takes a different view on the proxy advisor rules. She told me that the rulemaking procedure is deficient in several different ways, and could be subject to court challenge. Initially, the Commission acted without proper regard…
SEC Commissioner Allison Lee on Her Vote Against the Proxy Advisor Rule
Paying More For Less: Higher Costs for Shareholders, Less Accountability for Management Commissioner Allison Lee photo Commissioner Allison Herren Lee July 22, 2020 At the proposing stage for these rules, I observed that they would harm the governance process and suppress the free and full exercise of shareholder voting rights. Unfortunately, that is still the…
